Dutee anchors relay team and secures ticket to Doha Asian Championship

Patiala: Dutee Chand anchored a new-look 4x100m women’s relay team to qualify for the Asian Athletics Championships to be held in Doha from April 21 with a time of 44.12 seconds at the confirmatory trial at the Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports here today. Hina, Archana Suseendran and Ranga K ran the first three legs.

It was heartening to see 400m runner MR Poovama try her hand at pace setting for the two athletes running the 800m by leading them through a quick first lap. Gomathi K made the most of that to finish in 2:04.12 well inside the qualifying standards of 2:05.00. Twinkle Chaudhary missed out by finishing in 2:09.44.

The coaches decided to put most of the 400m runners through a 200m sprint since the electronic timer was available on track. And they were happy with the times clocked by the quartermilers who are being prepared for the World Relay Challenge in Japan next month.

The seasoned MR Poovamma led the women finishers in 24.05 seconds ahead of Hima Das (24.21) and Shubha (24.83) while Arokia Raj broke the beam in the men’s race in 20.72 seconds ahead of Muhammad Anas Yahiya (21.09) and Jabir (21.76).

The AFI selection committee will officially announce the decision on selection of athletes from today’s trial on Monday.

The results (qualifying guidelines for AAC2019 in brackets):

Men

5000m (13:50.00): Gavit Murali Kumar 14:24.34; Abhishek Paul 14:25.93.

Triple jump (16.50m): Praveen Chithravel 14.92m.

4x100m relay (39.00 seconds): Harjit Singh, Gurinder Vir Singh, Gurulal Singh and Saifikul Mondal 40.20 seconds

Women:

800m (2:05.00): Gomathi K 2:04.12; Twinkle Chaudhary 2:09.44.

400m hurdles (57.70): Arpita M 58.05 Saritaben Gayekwad 58.43.

3000m steeplechase (9:50.00): Parul Chaudhary 9:56.70.

Javelin throw (58.00m): Sharmila Kumari 55.16m

Discus throw (58.00m): Navjeet Kaur Dhillon 56.32m; Kamalpreet Kaur 56.03m.